6
“The Anti-Hero: How the Mobsters, Drug Dealers, and Narcissists Saved American
Television”
- Hannah Doban ’16
Television used to be a maligned medium. Recently, though, TV has undergone a
revolution. This is partly due to the emergence of compelling anti-heroes, whose
proliferation is rooted in contemporary cultural shifts that have created a disjointed,
broken society. This paper explores three noted TV anti-heroes: Tony Soprano from
The
Sopranos
, Walter White from
Breaking Bad
, and Don Draper from
Mad
Men
. Additionally, it explores the lack of a notable anti-heroine and race via
The Wire
’s
Omar Little.
“The Holocaust and Jewish American Identity in Film”
- Sophia Inkeles ’16
Being Jewish in America means different things to different people. What is clear,
however, is that Jewish identity is influenced by the past with the Holocaust occupying a
central role in the collective memory of the Jewish people. This was not always the case.
American awareness and attachment to the Holocaust developed over time. This paper
explores the ways that Holocaust films have reflected and reproduced differing notions of
Jewish American identity.
“What Mauled the Mall? The Rise and Fall of American Shopping Malls”
- Markus
Messore ’16
The shopping mall has long been held as a quintessential landmark of American suburban
culture. In recent years, however, the institution of the mall has begun to falter. This
paper examines some of the cultural factors that led to the rise and the decline of the
American shopping mall. It also explores the future of malls in America and its cultural
legacy domestically and abroad.
“Intersectional Thinking, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Leadership of the 1963
Children’s Crusade”
- Dan Plumer ’16
Collective memory of the Civil Rights Movement often casts Martin Luther King, Jr. as
its sole architect. In reality, there were many leaders who contributed to the civil rights
successes of the 1950s and 1960s. This thesis and accompanying audio documentary
explore the Birmingham, Alabama Children’s Crusade of 1963 from alternative
viewpoints to challenge traditional narratives of the Civil Rights Movement and to
unearth issues of race and class that fueled the movement.
“Ladies, Women, Bikers, People: Stories from Female Motorcyclists”
- Mollie Welch
’16
There is a significant gap in motorcycle literature regarding women. Many books and
journal articles on the subject include thin chapters or sections on motorcycle club gender
dynamics, but few offer substantive information on the lives of women motorcyclists. To
help close this gap, I have written a series of creative nonfiction stories from the
perspective of women motorcyclists, drawn from interviews, ethnographic sociology, and
other qualitative research techniques.
